My sister and I recently had to euthanize Hester because of bloating issues despite epsom salt at the max dose and because of her back issue. we over dosed her on clove oil and gave her over an hour in her .5 gallon hospital tank to be sure she was gone. No gill movement showed in over half an hour so she was gone.

The remaining issue is the clove oil residue. We want to be able to reuse the plastic plant that was in there for her comfort as well as possibly the gravel (though it's no big loss of that's a no go) and the tank. It has been sitting in open air for a few days now but still smells very strongly of the clove oil despite a heavy rinsing with hot water.

Does anyone know how to get rid of the residue? I was planning on trying vinegar, hot water, a scrubber, and possibly some aquarium salt for extra abrasiveness if necessary.

I'm not sure. I've never euth'd a fish in a tank. Normal procedure is in a very small cup with very little water... and I never used the cup for anything else but that for fear of cross contamination of both clove oil and any disease the fish was carrying.

I'm guessing rinsing everything in a 1-10 bleach solution and rinsing with scalding hot water several times should do the trick.

Honestly the clove oil thing... it burns like hell. I use it for tooth aches and it makes my whole mouth scream for minutes.

I keep my girls' cups around in case I have to faux pas them but I use 50/50 isopropyl alcohol. Poke a little hole in each side of the foil seal and then give little squirts into the cup until the mix is 50/50. Iso is about seventy cents per pint and clove oil is more like college tuition.

when you hit 50/50 with 50% you've got 25% and it'll take them in under a minute... it also sterilizes them, you can rinse the net you snagged em out with down into the cup when you add it.

My first cull I put in a cup in the freezer. Betta are too hardy to go quickly that way. She looked like she suffered a lot. Clove may put them to sleep but at $12.00 per ounce it'd be cheaper to cull them with mail order Kanamycin overdose to take their kidney.

I do understand your need to be gentle and pass them with love, but I think you'll agree its nice to have an easier, simpler way that doesn't linger every time you smell it.

I actually "sleep" my tetras with a shot of hand sanitizer, they're small enough it covers them.

I don't hate this subject as much as roundtail fighting, but it's close.